the president making his case and pressing lawmakers to reach a deal. when asked about the fiscal cliff in an interview today. ed henry is live from the white house. the president seemed to be aggressively pushing his message. >> he was. he's been briefed through the day by his staff. he's been at the white house behind closed doors, awaiting the latest. all those developments mike's talking about but he decided also to take an aggressive role in going on a sunday talk show for the first time in over three years, meet the press, and made his case by suggesting this is in republican hands now. if they do not move forward on a deal, the g.o.p. will get the blame for going off the cliff. >> one of the proposals we made was chain cpi which sounds technical but makes an adjustment in terms of how inflation a calculated on social security. high will highly unpopular among democrats but in pursuit of strengthening social security long term i'm willing to make those decisions. >> the president talking in the broader contest of if there's a $4 trillion debt deal